Wire screen for



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JOHN E. CRANE, OF LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS.

WIRE SCREEN FOR CLEANING COTTON.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 26,887', dated January 24, 1860.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, JOHN E. CRANE, of Lowell, in the county of Middlesexand State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Improvementin Elongated Trunks which are used in conjunction with a blast of airfor the purpose of opening and cleaning cotton and other fibroussubstances; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full andexact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings, which form a part of this specification.

Figure l, is a longitudinal section of a portion of my improvedcotton-cleaning trunk, and Fig. 2, is a plan of the same, after theportion B, of the top thereof has been removed.

Recent experiments have demonstrated that the best method of separatingthe perfect fibers of cotton from the refuse portion of the same, andalso from all foreign substances, is by forcing or drawing the cottonthrough an elongated screen-trunk by the agency of a strong current ofair, put in motion by any suitable mechanical means. But to produce thebest effect, it is necessary that the screen employed in said trunk,should be distinguished by the following peculiarities; viz; fine wires,small meshes, and so high a degree of smoothness that the cotton willpass over said screen without adhering to it, while it presents theleast possible obstruction to the passage through the same of refusecotton and all the foreign substances that may be mixed with the fibersof the cotton.

I give the requisite degree of openness as well as lineness to thescreen-portion D, of my improved cotton-cleaning trunk, by first,annealing the wire of which it is composed; then Weaving the same into afabric of the proper texture; then subjecting said fabric to the actionof an acid solution; then immersing the same in lime water, and thenapplying such an amount of polishing friction thereto as will removetherefrom every particle of roughness that would be likely to obstructthe free passage of cotton over the same. Without being subjected to theaforesaid method of treatment, the said wirescreen, if made ofunannealed wire, would present numerous cracks and rough places at thepoints where the warp was bent over the woof and if made of annealedwire, and left in that state, it would be covered with scales.

If deemed preferable by the manufacturer, he may polish, or smooth off,the surfaces of the annealed wires before weaving them into theaforesaid improved screens, and then all the roughness that may beproduced by the operation of weaving Said wires, may be removed from thesurfaces of the screens by any suitable process.

A series of transverse partitions E, E, which rise from the bottom F, ofthe cotton cleaning trunk, support the polished screen D, and they alsoform a series of cells along the bottom of the trunk for the receptionof the trashy matter and refuse cotton that is separated from theperfect fibers of the cotton. These cells also serve the purpose ofproducing eddies in the current of air passing through the trunk, whichagitate the cotton to t-he desired extent during its progress throughthe same.

I am aware that elongated cotton-cleaning trunks have been constructedwith screens whose meshes have been partially lled up by covering thewarp and portions of the woof thereof with lead, while in a meltedstate; and I am also aware that the screens of cotton-cleaning trunkshave been rendered smooth by frequent coatings of varvish, which verymaterially reduces the size of the meshes of the same; and therefore, Iwish it to be understood that the improvement in cotton-cleaning trunkswhich I have invented and desire to secure by Letters Patent, consistsin the use of metallicscreens in said trunks, when the said screens havebeen manufactured in such a manner as to remove the cracks, scales, andother adhesive roughnesses from their surfaces, substantially as hereinset forth.

W. Gr. WARD, O. E. OUsHINe.

